Have you ever come home to something your dog tore up and you didn’t want to deal with it but you knew you had to? Maybe it was a box he shredded (at best) or possibly the garbage he got into (at worst), but you knew it had to be taken care of and no one else was going to do it (unless you have kids old enough to assign it to…which I do now).

That’s sort of how I have always felt about taking over someone else’s troubled project. It’s a bit of an honor to be handed a project that is failing and to be asked to try to resurrect it. But it still feels like dumping. I like the feeling of leading a project from beginning to end – true ownership of the entire solution and the ability to engage the excited customer from the outset (they all start somewhat excited) and try to keep them that way throughout the project. Taking over the unwanted mess usually means you’re dealing with a customer who is ready to kill you, cancel the project and move on. It’s like talking someone down from a ledge or trying to stop a bank robbery in progress. It takes guts, risk taking, and negotiation skills…and a fair amount of Tylenol.

And unlike the dog mess where you could reassign it or just ignore it, if you’re assigned this type of project you usually have no choice but to take it over and do what you can with it. It would be nice to say that it’s failing anyway so I can only win – I can’t lose. But we all know that’s not true…because if it still fails now you’ll be the last project manager associated with it. It will still – to some degree – be YOUR failure. You can’t avoid it and there’s no prenuptial agreement you can sign before you take it over…it all becomes your mess now.

How do you take over such a project? What do you do to hopefully give yourself – and the project, of course – the best chance for success? The couple of times that I’ve had to do this, I’ve generally followed this path (mostly on the 2nd occurrence because I was still ‘learning’ how to best take over something like this the first time around)….

Meet with the team

First, sit down with the project team as soon as you possibly can. If the project was truly a mess and the project manager was considered somewhat to blame, then it’s not likely to have that individual available for any knowledge transfer. That is going to fall to your project team and probably some high-level information from your PMO Director. Gather project documents together from these individuals to review over the next few days and have a fairly detailed discussion in a 2-3 hour meeting with these team members over where the project has been, how it’s going, what issues are outstanding, what the most pressing needs are right now, and what their perception is of the customer’s frustration level as of today. The key is to close this meeting knowing what the 5-10 most pressing needs there are for the project and what the first things are that you should be discussing with the project customer in the next step.

Introduce yourself to the customer

Next, introduce yourself to the customer on a call from just you. You could choose to do this on a weekly status call, but it’s a better idea to do both – but do this call first. Introduce yourself, explain that you’ve met with the key participants internally and you understand ‘these 10 items’ to be the likely most critical needs of the project and ask if they concur. It’s very important to get good feedback from the customer on this call so that you can use your time wisely immediately following this call to get further up to speed and be focusing on the right issues and not chasing rabbits like the previous project manager probably was.

Hit the ground running

Finally, hit the ground running. You’ll be in the spot to perform wonders almost immediately so act like you know what you’re doing even if you’re still deep in the learning process. If your team is good, rely heavily on them during the first 1-2 weeks/meetings while you’re still wrapping your arms around the needs of the project and figuring out – along with the help of your team – exactly what actions to take next.

Summary

I’m sure many of you have been in this position at least once or twice in your PM careers. What steps have you followed to get onboard and productive as quickly as possible and to get up to speed and ready to attack the issues that are outstanding on the project? Please share – there is no perfect way to do this, but if we share our hits and misses with each other hopefully we can all acquire some best practices for taking on these troubled projects.

Facebook Comments

JKen_H

“Re-baseline” is the textbook word, but really what it saying is reset expectations. What and where the project was supposed to be at this point is a disappointment, likely to everyone involved, but you can’t turn the clock back. It’s largely immaterial. As soon as you can get all the stakeholders on board with a where do we go from here plan, and out of lamenting (and often assigning blame) mode, the sooner you can deliver.

Remember, you’ve been brought in as a savior, you have instant credibility. (Deserving or not!) Use that capital well to define what can be still delivered/salvaged and you’ll come out as well as you went in.

begeland

You’re right…you have instant credibility but you’re also going to be on a pretty short leash. Progress will be expected almost day one – especially if this has been going on for some time. Yes, you can’t turn back the clock, but you’re almost creating a ‘new’ project. Where are we now? What’s left to do? What do we absolutely have to do? Can we cut some things out? And let’s prioritize what’s left and create almost a new project schedule/plan for what remains.

Brad Egeland

Donna Bandal

It is important to be flexible, while laying down the law. If you are expected to pick up where someone left off, you have to get all the information necessary and do it quickly and efficiently to hit the ground running. In the event you are lacking an expert PMO Director or any kind of director-ship thereof..it’s up to you to get the best download about the project available and be as well-equipped-as possible to move it forward. Unfortunately, I have fell victim to the so called “dumping” numerous times. Here’s my best advise: 1-Get a quick handle on the deliverables needed–map them out. Create charts. 2-At the same time, obtain your timeline. 3-Assess what is do-able. What can you accomplish within the given parameters? Don’t be afraid to eliminate items that will prevent you from being successful in managing the project. 4-Continue to communicate to your team about your milestones accomplished and any bottlenecks that might possibly prevent you from meeting your deadline, keeping within budget and producing a quality job. 5-Be transparent–and share successes. Document carefully for any post-reviews and QA checks. And, finally, don’t be afraid to let management know what a great job you did on the “clean-up” crew so they know you are capable of handling projects out of the norm.

begeland

Donna-
Great points. I completely agree….too much dumping can be counterproductive. Get what’s important and use that first…otherwise you’ll feel buried. It would be nice to have the outgoing project manager available, but when it’s a mess then they are usually long gone…or on some sort of suspension…ouch. So then it’s your team or a PMO director if they have their head in the game. Usually the team is the best source unless they too were part of the problem.

And good point on eliminating what’s not important. It may be time to shave down the scope and get down what CAN be done now. And then discuss/negotiate with the customer on whether the rest is necessary and if it is, can it be done next month or three months from now…etc.

Thanks!
Brad Egeland

Peter Westerhof

In my experience even the above is too broad, high level and ambitious. But many very good points.

1. acknowlegde that it is a mess but it isn’t hopeless ; this is the first step towards solving

2. KISS

3. arrange a ‘war room’ ; that is a dedicated room with ample facilities, not a plush office. It’s about getting results, not feel-nice.

4. decorate the walls with flip-over sheets

5. start with 4 sheets :
A- what goes well, and what needs to be done to keep it that way
B- what goes not so well ; and what needs to be done to improve on that
C- what is agreed to be accomplished according to the original baseline, and prioritize those according to MoSCoW. The Musts are to be delivered within the original deadline (call it ‘Delivery V1.0). The rest will be delivered within weeks after that in a ‘follow up phase’ (call it ‘Delivery V1.1).
So a 2-stage rocket approach; Stage 1 to deliver as many of the Musts at the initial agreed delivery date. Whatever can not be completed within Stage 1 will *guaranteed* be delivered in Stage 2 which is to be completed 1 or 2 months after completion of Stage 1.

This approach usually helps a lot to lessen the worries with higher management (which is often about preventing loss of face).
D- draft a planning based on work to be completed each week

For A-D : add owners by personal name.

6. communicate, communicate, communicate,

7. invite alle stakeholders to come have a look and improve on the above results. Remember to differentiate between those committed and those involved, start with the first!! It’s about getting results, not feel-nice.

8. reiterate to next level of improvement and detail
___________________

The above will dampen anxiety and expectations, will raise trust in actual delivery, will force forward any blocking issues, and if it can’t be avoided force forward the decision the kill the project *now*.

begeland

Peter-
Good, sound process. I’ve done this – and when necessary, brought the customer onsite (or went onsite to the customer) especially when we’re working through some testing and performance (software/system performance) issues. We needed quick evaluation and acceptance or feedback. Thanks for sharing…
Brad Egeland

Terry Deane

This is an interesting article. I recently took over a project with a current client that was in free fall whilst doing my day job. They were trying to solve/do everything all at once. Everything was high priority, the outcome was a complete stall of the project.

I “shouted” STOP. Whats first, started to sort that and got on track before moving onto the second biggest issue. Then chewed my way through the project unsticking all strands of the project in priority order which was agreed with the customer and client.

After a couple of months i have a very happy project team, happy customer and a happy client. Its not perfect yet but its on its way. I wish i had the opportunity to take over more projects in trouble.

begeland

Terry-
Thanks for sharing your experience. I completely agree. Prioritizing the issues and attacking them sequentially is critical. Multi-tasking – real productive multi-tasking – is next to impossible in the world of project management anyway…especially when you’re performing anything other than mundane activities. What’s most important now? Do that. Then move on to what’s next important…which is what you did and what you have to do in order to make any progress on a mess like that. And it’s the best way to show your progress to your frustrated customer, team and management. Thanks for sharing.
Brad Egeland

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